"The issue of Donald Trump and Russia was very much in the news and it was natural to talk about it. We spoke about the kind of activities the Russians can be engaged in.

"We also spoke about how Mr Trump may find himself in a position where there could be an attempt to blackmail him with Kompromat (the Russian term for compromising material) and claims that there were audio and video tapes in existence."

President-elect Donald Trump Credit:
REUTERS/Mike Segar

Sir Andrew, who was ambassador to Moscow between 1995 and 2000, denied having seen the dossier at the time of the meeting and added Mr Steele was "very professional and thorough".

The dossier was leaked earlier this week, and Britain now finds itself caught in the crossfire of accusations between Russia and the US.

Sir Andrew said he doubted that Mr Steele's source made the claims up.

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 officer who compiled the dossier

He told BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "He could have done, though that would be a fairly elaborate exercise designed to get at Chris Steele and I don't really see why that would be done."